Tickled, I reached out to the author of this other Friday Night Fish Fry, an American author, whose email I was able to track down following the internet breadcrumbs. I emailed him and despite not knowing me from Eve and possibly being startled by my audacity, he responded and responded very warmly, similarly tickled by the coincidence of us having stories with exactly the same name. Perhaps like me he’s gotten a few odd, random emails over the years (as a writer in the public domain it’s not all that unusual actually) and has learned how to separate the enthusiastic from the stalkerish. We vibed instantly – he read my story, I read his – we talked about the things the stories shared beyond name despite one being set in America’s heartland and the other being set in the heart of the Caribbean. We talked briefly about other writerly things – he even provided some encouragement about a fellowship he’d recently completed that I’d applied for without success: encouragement and advice.

I’m sharing this interaction because for me it is one of those serendipitous things that can happen when you go against your instincts and cross the room (virtual or physical) to connect with someone you feel drawn to – even if it is over the odd coincidence of naming your differently located but thematically linked stories the same name. I didn’t feel any less awkward than when I do this in actual literary gatherings (and frankly it could have gone as fubar as these things do) but I took that first step anyway.